Crypto Altruism Podcast Episode 158 - Treegens - Decentralized, Permissionless Tree Planting with World Record Tree Planter Jimi Cohen
In episode 158, we’re excited to welcome Jimi Cohen, Founder of Treegens, a community on a mission to build a world where anyone can plant trees & get rewarded. Another fun fact about Jimi, is that he recently set a Guiness World Record for most trees planted in 24 hours by a single individual, with over 30,000! In our chat we discuss how Web3 can help coordinate tree planters all over the world to plant hundred of millions of trees, how blockchain can improve monitoring, reporting, and verification in tree planting efforts, growing the regen movement, and much more.
Three Key Takeaways
Mangroves absorb about 8-10x more carbon from the atmosphere than old terrestrial forests and are efficient to plant, making than an ideal fit for tree planting and decarbonizing efforts. This is why Treegens has primarily focused on mangrove trees for their tree planting efforts, including Jimi’s Guiness World Record attempt.
Decentralized, permissionless tree planting is much more scalable than centralized tree planting, as anyone can support it, and anyone can be rewarded. In one of the communities Jimi has worked in, some of the locals are paid two days a year to plant trees, or simply volunteer their time. Platforms like Treegens, leveraging Web3 primitives, can create an environment where these individuals can turn tree planting into a full-time job where they are consistently rewarded for their efforts.
If an individual’s first experience with Web3 is being rewarded and receiving crypto for positive impact, it can be a very powerful tool for onboarding individuals and communities to Web3.
Follow Jimi and Treegens
Episode Time Stamps
02:20 - What was your “Ah hah” moment that first got you excited about cryptocurrency and web3?
04:40 - In addition to your work in Web3, you are also a tree planting world champion, and I understand that you recently achieved the Guiness World Record for most trees planted by an individual in one day! Tell me more about the experience.
11:15 - To kick things off, can you please give listeners an intro to Treegens’ mission?
16:05 - What makes Web3 such a powerful force for empowering individual climate action?
18:45 - How does blockchain help with transparency and verification?
22:05 - If one of the trees is not successful in growing, what’s your process for re-planting trees?
23:45 - How do you coordinate and engage local stakeholders for new tree planting projects?
27:30 - How do you balance and reconcile the bureaucratic and decentralized elements?
29:00 - You’ve also been heavily involved in the growth of Let’s GROW DAO – a project dedicated to catalyzing the regen movement. Do you mind telling me more about Let’s GROW DAO and its plans for the future?
36:45 - I understand that your next goal is to beat the world record for most trees planted in 24 hours, which is held by Ethiopia – tell me more about this and how Treegens will help you make this a reality.
42:00 - Planting 30,000 trees in 24 hours takes a lot of discipline. Do you have any wisdom for listeners on how to stay motivated towards their goals?
48:05 - What’s the best way for listeners to learn more about Treegens and Let’s GROW DAO?
49:45 - To wrap things up, if you could name one thing that excites you most about the social impact potential of web3, what would it be and why?
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DISCLAIMER
While we may discuss specific web3 projects or cryptocurrencies on this podcast, please do not take any of this as investment advice, and please make sure to do your own research on potential investment opportunities, or any opportunity. We host a variety of guests on this podcast with the sole purpose of highlighting the social impact use cases of this technology. That being said, Crypto Altruism does not endorse any of these projects, and we recognize that, since this is an emerging sector, some may be operating in regulatory grey areas, and as such, we cannot confirm their legality in the jurisdictions in which they operate, especially as it pertains to decentralized finance protocols. So, before getting involved with any project, it’s important that you do your own research and confirm the legality of the project. More info HERE.
